Pokemon Go Update: More Than 8.7 Billion Kilometers Walked By Players; Did Their Health Improve?

Niantic revealed that the Pokemon Go community has collectively walked more than 8.7 billion kilometers, which equate to more than 200,000 trips around Earth. This statistics covers data as of December 7 and include the behavior of their players.

According to Niantic, the distance covered by Pokemon Go players is equivalent to 1,000 years of non-stop flight by a commercial jetliner. The mobile game developer also revealed the 88 billion monsters caught by Pokemon trainers. Niantic's equations translate this to more than half a billion Pokemons caught per day.

Niantic developed the game with the aim of urging people to leave their houses, walk around, and search for Pokemon monsters. The company released a video to show the wild stats from the past five months.

The numbers are expected to drop slightly during the winter season. To encourage more Pokemon Go players to hunt into the chilly outdoors, Niantic increased the spawn rates in urban, more isolated, and rural areas. New baby Pokemons were also introduced, requiring more trainers to log even more distances.

A study conducted by Harvard University and published in the "British Medical Journal" downplayed the health benefits associated with playing Pokemon Go. The study found the fitness boost offered by the mobile game as a short-lived phenomenon. The authors explored the claims that Pokemon Go can improve public health by promoting physical activity. They shared that Pokemon Go has slight health impact on its users.

"In our study population, however, the results indicate that the health impact of Pokemon Go might be moderate," the authors wrote. They added that "Interventions designed to increase walking typically increase the number of steps by 2,500 daily. Even if smaller amounts of physical activity might also be important for health outcomes, the increase in steps from Pokemon Go, as with many physical activity interventions was not sustained over time."

The video below  shows how far Pokemon Go players have walked and the number of creatures they have caught.